Just got finished running for County Commissioner; lost rather resoundingly. I’m glad it’s over with.

A butt-whipping at the polls is good for the soul. Not a lot of them mind you, every now and again will suffice. It was kind of fun, but it would have been more fun to win.

However, life’s about the journey not particularly the destination. Now I can get back to my original bucket list, the one with less stressful things in it. As for Republican control? I think Clermont County is a good swap-out for the presidency.

Clermont County is solidly Republican, for sure. But these are TP Republicans, the ones who refuse to consider a future in which white people aren’t the dominant group, if not the dominant majority. These people have been ill-served by their leaders, by their chosen media (Fox News, etc.) and their chosen radio shows. Their media does not tell them the truth – that is why they were so surprised that the rest of the nation did not go as Clermont County did. The rest of the nation is going in the opposite direction from Clermont County. And the Republican Party is not leading my fellow citizens (at least 67 percent of them), but is actively misleading them.

Republicans want a loose oligarchy of rich whites at the top, a vast middle of white male-dominated businesses in the middle, and a congeries of minority groups below them to provides service and social deference to the white middle classes. Just like it was in the 1950s.

No matter how much Republican stalwarts wish for this, except for the top part – it isn’t happening. They get angry because the rest of us don’t vote for their dream. Why on earth would minorities, union people and women choose to place themselves back under the not-very-wonderful control of a group of people that has kept them down since before the republic began, and which has every intention of returning us to that yesteryear?

People out here think that Clermont represents America. It more closely resembles Mississippi and Alabama. Clermont County white people cannot wish reality away; they can only recede from the mainstream to protect their updated version of a long-gone South Africa.

I stood around at the polls all day election day and listened to these people talk about media conspiracies, left-wing poll results that were attempting to impose a liberal view on the news, and exhorting people to vote for the American. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Will the Democrats ever prevail here? Who knows, but it’s hard to see younger people of any sort caring much about it, or ultimately sticking around. Every anti-school levy sign was nestled in with Republican yard signs. Not all Republicans vote against levies, but it’s clear a lot of them did, do, and will continue to do so.

We want foreigners to invest here – but how will we treat them it they settle here? After this last election, one has to wonder.

Len Harding is a retired consultant, technical writer and historian. He was a Democratic candidate for Clermont County Commissioner.